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War and Peace, Volume 1

War and Peace is one of the greatest monuments in world literature. Set against the dramatic backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, it examines the relationship between the individual and the relentless march of history. Here are the universal themes of love and hate, ambition and despair, youth and age, expressed with a swirling vitality which makes the book as accessible today as it was when it was first published in 1869.

A Midwesterner in Jersey says:"A Truly Great Book and a Truly Astounding Narrator"

Publisher's Summary

Siberia 1919. In the outer reaches of a country recently torn apart by civil war lives a small Christian sect and its enigmatic leader, Balashov. Stationed nearby is a regiment of Czech soldiers, desperate to get home but on the losing side in the recent conflict. Into this isolated community trudges Samarin, an escapee from Russia's northernmost gulag. Immediately apprehended, he is brought before the regiment's megalomaniac commander. But the stranger's arrival has also caught the attention of others, including Anna, a beautiful young war widow. And when the local shaman lies dead, suspicion and terror engulf the little town.

What the Critics Say

"Very good." (Stephen King) "This original, literary page-turner succeeds both with its credible psychological detail and in its grandeur and sweep." (Publishers Weekly) "Meek's novel deftly explores the erotic undercurrent of revolutionary violence....Remarkable...richly informed and imagined." (The New York Times Book Review) "Inviting comparison with Greene, Conrad, and Dostoyevsky, this is stunning, masterful fiction." (Booklist)

This is not an easy book. The narrative is not one of those that pulls you along, rather its one that you need to work at - participate in. A highly stylised work(think classic Russian writting of the late 19th Century), it is a deeply descriptive journey into the heart and mind of a Russia on the cusp of great change. The characters are deeply memorable, the portrait of the land and its people vivid and loving. The narrator does an outstanding job.
May be appreciated by fans of Haruki Murakami.